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Bubblegum
When she was 14 years old, Zoey Marchaunt was living the life of a fairy tale princess. She was the daughter of rich parents, which meant she always had the finest fashions, the latest iPhone, and even her own driver. She was extremely pretty, meaning that boys were falling all over themselves to do her favors and buy her little gifts hoping to earn her affection and other girls could do nothing but stand by and seethe with jealousy. She was popular, which meant Captain of the cheer leading team, Homecoming Queen, and a Facebook page with five digits worth of followers. Sure, her parents showed their love by showing her with anything she wanted to keep her quiet so that they could forget she existed, but Zoey honestly didn't mind that at all. But on the even of her fifteen birthday her perfect world careened and smashed into an abrupt end. When her body began expanding, deflating, and spiraling out of control on its own, Zoey became a pariah. Her loyal teen devotees vanished. Her boyfriend, terrified, never looked back. Her Facebook page became unruly with taunts of 'freak' and 'mutie' and 'kill yourself'. Her horrified parents packed her up and took her to Bellreave and then left for good, signing papers that made her a ward of the hospital and no longer their responsibility. In Bellreave, subjected to endless tests of her pliability powers, endless pills to keep her in one shape and extremely docile, and without any friends, Zoey felt a crushing sadness and loneliness that brought with it suicidal thoughts, and even an attempt; but the scalpel wasn't able to slice her rubbery skin. But then, when Zoey had reached her lowest point in her medical prison, Jesse Anderson sat across from her at the breakfast table. With Jesse it was as though Spring had finally come after a bitterly cold and desolate winter. Jes, whom preferred to be called by her nickname Bitter Pill, lifted Zoey's spirits to soaring new heights. Zoey's new friend showered her with praise and affection, giving her the nickname Bubblegum. They two ate together, stood line together to receive the mutually hated medication, and spent hours in one or the others' rooms talking about boys, how bad the hospital was, and even about how they could use their superpowers to get rich and strike back at everyone whom had ever hurt them. When Bitter Pill introduced Zoey to her newest friend Cecilia, whom she called Bully, things got even better. After months of incarceration--and lots of secret training with their powers--Bitter Pill formulated an escape plan and the trio, whom had begun referring to themselves as the B-Girls, busted out to freedom. They ran to a safe house that Bitter Pill knew of in the Row, and there the three young ladies began formulating their new idea: to become costumed super-villains and get rich. For the first year of their escapades together: Bitter Pill, the nearly indestructible Bully, and Zoey were a superb and resourceful machine. They robbed banks and jewelry stores with wild abandon, and even managed to knock a few superheroes flat. The Girls were rising steadily in the criminal underworld, and eventually Pill realized that what the team really lacked was a long range specialist. So, once again committing herself to Bellereave, she emerged in two months with the energy projecting Brat. Almost immediately, Zoey begin to feel pangs of conscious. Brat wasn't like the others: She was an agent of pure destruction; never content to just rob a place but that she had to cause as much damage as possible. When she started hurting people as well, Zoey went to Pill to voice her concerns and found that the team had taken another downturn: Pill was rapidly succumbing to sociopath tendencies. Zoey, having nowhere else to go, stayed with the team but refused to take part in plots that would result in direct harm against innocent people which put her at odds with the rest of her team. When, in December of 2011, the Girls attacked a charity fund-raiser for mortally ill children and Pill incinerated the Christmas Tree and the gifts meant for the cancer stricken children, Zoey had enough. Secretly, she contracted Michael Moriarity (a telekinetic projection of the hero trainer Cleopatra) and pleaded for asylum. Cleopatra promised her the asylum she requested on two conditions: She would have to atone for her past crimes by becoming a superhero and she would have to reveal the location of the Girls' hideout. She agreed to both. Since then, Bubblegum has found that she truly enjoys being a hero. She has a new family now in the League that showers her with affection and understanding, which sometimes bewilders her for having no experience with such things. Not all of her teammates trust her yet, understandably, but she is determined to prove herself to them. Currently, she spends most of her time with Foxfire and Thumbelina, as she feels most comfortable around them. Personality/Motivation Zoey is largely introverted, uncomfortable under the spotlights and not liking to take a leadership role with her team. She is more than content to maintain a support role, using her powers to protect less than tough as nails team-mates. Because of her expertise with the criminal underworld, Zoey is often asked for advice on dealing with this or that villain or group or where to go to find informants. Though she downplays it, she is pleased to be given such consideration by her peers. Zoey is motivated to be a hero both to prove herself to her teammates and, to a greater extent, to make restitution for the life of crime she previously lead. She can become a little morose when reminded of her criminal past, especially by the public she is striving so desperately to protect. Though she is extremely intelligent and a highly skilled tactician-often coming up with team moves that work remarkably well-she is sometimes treated as if she is a ditzy blonde. Though this annoys her, she'll sometimes play the role just to mess with people. Zoey dreams of being a famous Hollywood actress. She currently has an agent and has appeared in several commercials, but the leading lady role continues to elude her. Quote "What if we tried this?" Powers/Tactics Bubblegum is a genetic mutant with the ability to stretch any part of her body out to a length of sixty feet. In addition to all of the extended reach abilities this gives her, her malleability allows her to resist most forms of conventional impact damage. She can shrug off physical blows such as a punch or a kick, and even more forceful attacks such as those that could be inflicted with a club will hurt her slightly but do no lasting damage. Puncture and slashing attacks, such as knives or bullets, inflict full damage and can greatly injure or even kill her. Regardless, it takes a lot of injure her, and she takes advantage of this by often transforming herself into a suit of living armor for her companions to wear, affording them more protection than they would normally have. In combat, when she is not helping to protect her teammates she will often go on the offensive by making her hands enormous and swatting at opponents or elongating her arms and winding them around a foe like a rope to render them helpless. Bubblegum's malleability makes her especially vulnerable to cold. Cold based attacks tend to have a greater change to stun her or knock her out more than most forms of attack. Skills Bubblegum is a credible actress whom has used her ability to thwart crime in the past, often posing ( in civilian identity ) as a reporter, crime victim, or low totem criminal in order to work her way into the crime-infested underbelly of Paradigm City and gather information. Her greatest claim to fame, to date, is when she went undercover as a drug lord's girlfriend for a whopping ten months. The information she obtained allowed the FBI to arrest and convict the drug lord, but earned her the enmity of The White Tiger gang in Millennium City's Chinatown, to whom the drug lord was beholden. Her acting talents make her a skilled orator. She is also adept at creative writing, has a beautiful singing voice, and has trained in Jazz, Classical, Ballroom, and Ballet dancing. Zoey is bilingual, fluent in English (Native), Spanish, and French. She is also intimately familiar with the Citywalk and Chinatown zones of Millennium City. She knows where to find people or places with ease, be they criminal or law-abiding. Zoey has also proven herself to be a brilliant strategist, having come up with several 'team combat maneuvers' that in training sessions have proven devastating to enemy forces. These crafty moves have not yet been put into field use however, which hurts and confuses her. Some of her most notable contributions are: Catapult: One of the team bricks picks Zoey up after she has changed into a ball shape and lobs her at an enemy. Alpha-Strike One: A team tank places a villain into a full-nelson or similar hold, and other heroes with ranged powers all strike the immobilized criminal (great against enemy tanks!) Orbital Strike: Several team tanks grasp a team ranged specialist each and lob them high into the air. While airborn, the range-powered heroes all focus their strikes on an individual target (great for enemy vehicles or enemies hidden behind cover.) Appearance Zoey Marchaunt is a strikingly beautiful 17 year old with sun-tanned skin and flowing blonde hair; to many people she is the epitome of the idea of the classic California blonde. As Bubblegum she wears two different costumes. The first is a white long-sleeved leotard with a soft pink square design running down the right side. Her mask and boots are also soft pink. The second one is a singlet which is mostly pink with a white going diagonally from her left shoulder to her right armpit; the white even extends along her arm to a pink gloves. Her left arm is bare save for a white glove on her left hand. Her right leg is encased in a pink thigh boot, and her left leg is completely bare save for a white ankle boot. Her mask is white on the right side and pink on the left. Both costumes, designed by Monkeywrench, are made of unstable molucules so that they stretch in accordance to how Bubblegum is stretching. Rogues Gallery If any supervillain out on the streets could be called Bubblegum's Arch-Enemy, it would be Brat of the B-Girls. Brat and Bubblegum have collided countless times, and Brat has used a few tricks to lure Bubblegum out into the open to try and decimate her for good; but luckily Bubblegum keeps bouncing back. No pun intended. Her infiltration of certain gangs as an informant has earned her the wrath of several high-ranking gangsters in the Chromatic Dragon and White Tiger gangs of Millennium City. The greatest threats posed to her are from Manuel Domingez, Pedro Alvarez, and Green-Face of the Chromatic Dragons, whilst from the White Tigers she faces threats from Chi Shogi, Wan Funtang, and the superpowered Shadowsling. Interestingly, Shadowsling and Bubblegum have clashed numerous times, though the criminal is unaware that Zoey Marchaunt and Bubblegum are the same person. Category:Heroes Category:Characters